


The Shape of a Violin

by Marengo227



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Angst, Gen, I wrote this before I realized Fates just uses regular months for time, Mental Instability, Time Loop, dont judge me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-18 18:24:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19340077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marengo227/pseuds/Marengo227
Summary: The 4th of Cralst is a day Elise will never forget. It was the day that sparked the spiral of events that led to Corrin betraying Nohr for Hoshido, leaving Elise devastated and heartbroken. It's also the day she finds herself waking up to every time she dies.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago, but I never bothered to copy it from ffnet and put it here too. The other chapter I’ve written will be up soon. Warning for various types of mental and psychological angst that may be upsetting.

_4_ _th_ _of Cralst, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

Sunlight beamed down through a stained-glass window imprinted with the image of two doves flying in front of a golden sunrise. This sunlight, now painted white and gold, hit Princess Elise of Nohr, who laid in her bed with the sheets strewn out around her, a consequence of a long night that ended with very little actual sleep. Who could blame her for being so restless? After all, today was a very, very special day for her.

Elise's brief sleep was ended by a loud knock on her bedroom door, and a shout from the other side. "Lady Elise!" The voice called out, inciting a groan from the girl. Her eyes fluttered open and briefly squinted to adjust to the light hitting her face. Sitting up and brushing her waist-length hair out of her face, she looked at the door.

"Come in, Effie!" Elise shouted, rubbing her tired eyes before reaching her arms up to stretch, grunting softly. Her retainer, already wearing her heavy armor, opened the door and almost immediately got to work preparing the princess for the day. It was routine by this point, just as much as it was routine for Elise to practice playing her violin which sat in the corner of her room, just as much as it was routine for her to whine throughout Effie's process, though she never really meant any of it.

"Remember Lady Elise, Corrin doesn't know about it yet." Effie reminded as she brushed Elise's hair, preparing to get it into its usual twintails. "You're supposed to act surprised when he receives the news."

"Right, right." Elise practiced faces of shock and joy in her hand mirror. "Oh, Corrin! I can't believe you'll finally be let out of the Northern Fortress for good! This is so amazing, now we can spend way more time together!" Her wide smile slowly grew less exuberant. "Assuming he passes father's test, that is…"

"Believe in your brother, Elise. Whatever test King Garon has prepared for him, I'm sure he'll pass with flying colors." Effie's voice was calm, reassuring, but it didn't help Elise much. She had so many doubts in her mind, so many scenarios playing out in her head of what could go wrong and end with Corrin stuck in the Northern Fortress for the rest of his life. Of course, it was all ridiculous, Elise knew that, but she thought it regardless.

Still, Elise lied. "I know, Effie. I'm sure everything will be alright."

Corrin failed. He didn't execute the prisoners like father had ordered him to. When Elise saw it happen, she nearly screamed for Corrin to just do that horrible deed, so he could finally leave the Northern Fortress. When Leo did the job for him, it only dashed her hopes. The fact that Leo did it to secretly spare the prisoners' lives was irrelevant at the time.

The one thing that sparked Elise's hopes yet again was the promise of a second chance. A final chance. Corrin was to go to a small fort at the Bottomless Canyon, one that was said to be abandoned, and secure it for Nohr. If he did that, he would be allowed to leave the Northern Fortress and serve father with his siblings.

Elise, much like her retainer did with her, spent hours with Corrin going over every possibility. She wanted him to succeed, _needed_ him to succeed. She always hated how little time she could ever spend with him and the idea of him wasting away inside of a cold, stone fortress in the middle of nowhere filled her with more dread than it did him. Was she being too pessimistic? It was true that she was the optimist of the family, but that didn't stop her from occasionally being unable to think of anything but the worst-case scenario. That was simply a Nohrian trait.

"Really, Elise, I'm sure it'll be fine!" Corrin gave her his usual smile, one that was naïve and even a little clueless, but also caring and thoughtful. Looking at that smile, Elise realized that thinking he hadn't given it just as much thought as she had was a foolish assumption to make. "I'm going to pass this test father has given me. I'm going to pass it and return home to Xander, and Leo, and Camilla, and you."

Tears were welling up in her eyes, and the last thing she wanted was for Corrin to see. At the same time, what she wanted most in that moment was just to hug him. So she did, and in the process, killed two birds with one stone. Perhaps not, though. Despite his more ditzy and clueless attitude he tended to have, Corrin was far more astute in his observations than most. However, if he did notice Elise's tears, he said nothing of them.

 _30_ _th_ _of Cralst, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

He was still missing. Corrin was _still missing_. Nobody returned from the Northern Fortress expedition aside from Hans, a criminal turned soldier who claimed that Gunter, Corrin's mentor and retainer, plummeted into the Bottomless Canyon, and Corrin disappeared soon after, presumably suffering the same fate. Everyone took the news differently. Corrin's other retainers were distraught. Hans as well as Iago, father's court magician and royal advisor, shed crocodile tears. Father himself showed no emotion, though Elise wondered if that meant he truly felt no sadness for the loss of his son, or if he was simply hiding the grief.

Xander spoke little in the weeks that followed. Camilla didn't speak at all. Leo spent just about every waking moment studying once he had finished ordering his own retainers to go searching around the Bottomless Canyon. Still, twenty-six days was a long time to survive in such an inhospitable environment. Perhaps Leo would soon send a letter requesting his retainers to widen their search area to nearby towns and tribes.

Elise felt the worst out of all of them, or at least, she felt like she did. Xander was still commanding troops, Camilla was still going out on missions, and Leo was still actively searching for their brother, but Elise had merely spent the days sobbing in her room, with her retainers trying and failing time after time to comfort her. She had promised herself a few days prior that she would allow herself until the end of the month to cry, and after that she would shed no more tears until she found out for sure what happened to her brother. The final day of the month had arrived, and Elise cried more than usual, trying to get out as many tears as she could in order to make the following days easier.

 _15_ _th_ _of Varn, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

There were many things that Elise predicted might happen to her. A life of politics, arranged marriages, words that always carried double meanings and backstabbers at every turn. A quiet, sheltered life, where she would serve as a figurehead, remaining bright and happy and innocent to help inspire the citizens of Nohr. Perhaps she would even follow in Leo's footsteps and devote herself to the arcane, becoming a scholar.

War was always a possibility, and one that Elise had considered, but it had never been one she had prepared for, outside of basic combat medic training. And now it was here, and instead of waiting for it to come to her, she had to come to it. Father had ordered it himself, saying that his four children had to lead the initial charge on Hoshido, for the sake of morale. _There aren't four of us._ Was all Elise could think. _There are five of us. Corrin is one of us. He's your son. He's my brother. He's alive, I know he is. He must be._

 _28_ _th_ _of Varn, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

There was a brief moment, less than a split second, where Elise wished that Corrin had actually died at the Bottomless Canyon. Better that, she rationalized in her regret, than turning his sword against his own family. He shouted at Xander, demanding why he would keep his true family a secret from him. Behind him was a girl about Elise's age, a boy that looked to be about Leo's, a girl who couldn't have been much younger than Camilla, and a man who looked even older than Xander did. Corrin had called them his true family. His _real_ family.

Xander tried to explain something, but Corrin interrupted him, telling him to stop. He began accusing Camilla of the same thing, and she made no effort to reject his accusations. She merely turned her head away in shame. Leo argued even more fiercely than Xander, but he also never denied knowing about the secret.

Corrin's eyes turned to Elise, and in that moment, they softened for the first time since she had seen him again. He didn't argue with her, accuse her of lying, shout and scream at her like he did with their siblings. He just spoke two words. "I'm sorry." Then, he attacked Xander, and everything devolved into chaos.

 _30_ _th_ _of Varn, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

Elise regretted having learned almost nothing on her violin aside from upbeat, chipper tunes. She needed some way to express what she was feeling, and when words and tears weren't enough, she tried to turn to her instrument, but even there, she had no way to let out her emotions. An attempt at playing these happier songs in a more somber way only made them sound wrong, like a sunset painting the sky the wrong color.

Everything was wrong, really. Corrin was with Hoshido now, with his _real family_. Elise wasn't sure if she felt more disgust or self-loathing whenever those two words reappeared in her mind. He considered those people, the Hoshidan Royal Family, his real family. The image of the girl her age kept replaying in her mind over and over again. Was she a better sister than Elise was? Was she really just a normal sister, and Elise was just awful? She wasn't sure which possibility sounded worse.

Elise had kicked and screamed and cried and hurled every insult she could think of at her siblings, who all _knew_ that Corrin was stolen from Hoshido and never told him, never told her. She could see them get ready to give some scripted excuse, but none of them ever did. Perhaps the shock was still setting in. She felt similarly.

Letting out a slow, shaky breath, Elise picked her violin back up and continued to play, trying desperately to make her happy song work, even if every ounce of happiness she poured into it was fake. She needed to at least pretend that everything was fine, even if only for a few minutes. The day she promised she wouldn't cry was a month ago, and with the first day of a new month only being hours away now, Elise realized she hadn't made another goal for herself. In that moment, she decided that she would learn another song on her violin by the end of the next month, one that was far less upbeat.

 _17_ _th_ _of Trisk, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

Elise had fulfilled her goal of learning a new song on her violin, and for the month after that, she learned another one. So, for the following month, she decided her goal would be to see more of the world outside of Nohr. When father announced his plan to see the opera at Cyrkensia, Elise jumped on the opportunity and asked if she could come along. Immediately after asking, Elise wondered if it had been a good idea, but father was surprisingly willing to take her along with him. Perhaps he had been waiting for her to ask for something like this, or maybe he was just too tired with the war going on to bother arguing with her about it.

When she saw Corrin and his troops in the opera house, Elise's heart nearly leapt out of her chest. Seeing his _real family_ there with him, however, only filled her with more loathing, towards them and herself. She tried to talk to him, to ask him why he left and beg him to return, but Xander and his forces attacked them, claiming he was there to assassinate father. When Corrin didn't object to this claim, Elise was horrified. Father wasn't a perfect person, but nobody deserved to be murdered!

In the end, Elise got in Xander's way and prevented him from attacking Corrin. The Hoshidan soldiers fled, and Elise was told bluntly that she would never set foot outside of Castle Krakenburg until the war was over. Of course, that was under the assumption that she couldn't sneak out of the castle; a sensible assumption to make, considering only her retainers and Camilla knew about the secret exit that led straight to an underground section of the capital city of Windmire.

 _28_ _th_ _of Darth, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

Elise was tired of her violin. She tried to learn more somber songs to better output her emotions, but it had reached the point where now all playing them did was remind her of Corrin. Even the upbeat songs just brought back memories of happier times that she could no longer experience. Camilla barely talked anymore. Xander spent all of his time devoted to the war, maybe talking to Elise once or twice a week if she was lucky. Leo had left on some journey he refused to speak about, promising to return once he had sorted things with Corrin, whatever that meant. Elise had pushed her own retainers further and further away emotionally, not wanting to drag them down into her own misery. She felt utterly alone, and her stupid violin wasn't helping.

One day, she threw her violin off a balcony and watched it smash on the ground below.

 _21_ _st_ _of Rorst, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

Selling flowers while disguised as a peasant girl was a fantastic distraction for Elise. It kept her busy over the months since the incident at Cyrkensia, helped her take her mind off of the war, and even got her to feel slightly less miserable whenever she thought about Corrin. She always gave whatever money she earned to Cassita, her wet nurse. It wasn't like Elise needed any of the money anyways. Camilla most certainly knew about her escapades, but she never said anything, instead just occasionally giving her a knowing look whenever they ran into eachother while Elise was heading off.

When Elise saw Corrin in the underground, she swore for a moment that she must've been dreaming. She really did almost pinch herself, just like people would do in those stories she read when she was really little. It was just as much of a shock to him, which made sense considering he had never learned of her once rare but now more common escapades to Windmire's underground.

Elise wasted no time in taking Corrin and his group to Cassita's house, where she explained what had been going on in Castle Krakenburg. She got to meet all the people Corrin had been working with, and while she expected them to be the awful monsters she had imagined them to be, they were all nice people. Even his real little sister, Sakura, who had a nervous stammer that made every sentence rather hard for her.

Eventually, Corrin introduced Elise to a girl with long, brown hair who he introduced as Hana. "She's Sakura's retainer." Corrin explained to Elise, who was a bit confused as to why Corrin felt the need to introduce her separately from the others. "She's…" Corrin seemed rather nervous, but not in the way he always was whenever Elise and the others would tease him. No, he was genuinely anxious. "She's my fiancé. We're to be married once the war is over."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Princess Elise." Hana greeted with a kind smile. "Corrin's told me so much about you and your siblings! He's always said how much of a kind soul you are. He thinks rather highly of you!" Elise was only half listening. Corrin was _engaged_ , which meant he was going to be _married_.

"I love Hana with all my heart." Corrin took his fiancé's hand, smiling along with her. "She's given me so much support in these times, and I'm honestly unsure if I'd be able to keep going on without her support. She really has been a light in the dark for me." He sounded so much older in the way he spoke, so much more grown up. It was astounding what his time away had done to his character.

"Oh Corrin, there's no need to flatter me so much!" A laugh accompanied Hana's insistence. "Especially when you deserve far more praise than I do. You're the reason we've gotten this far, after all. That kind of persistence is why you're the man I fell in love with."

The two lovebirds looked at Elise, who held her hands together in her lap. She looked them both in the eye, smiling. "I'm so happy for you both. Really, it's so wonderful!" Seeing her brother so happy made Elise happy as well. Genuinely, truly happy, for the first time in months.

Elise wished that happiness could have lasted. However, Corrin hadn't arrived in Windmire to engage in idle conversation. He had come to dethrone father and end the war, whether peacefully or by force, and Elise chose to help him. She had seen the way that father had been acting differently, like a whole new person altogether. He killed people for minor offenses right in front of her, even threatened to execute her after what she had done in Cyrkensia. It had reached the point where even Xander, the paragon of Nohrian loyalty, occasionally spoke of his doubts to Elise, confiding in secret that he believed his father had changed for the worse.

Getting past Camilla was easy enough, though when facing Hans, Corrin unfortunately lost Lilith. Elise had only met the girl a few times, but she always was humbly smiling whenever she saw her. It was clear that a person like that didn't deserve such a cruel fate. When facing Iago, Elise secretly thought to herself that the man deserved any horrible consequence that would come to him. Even when he fell, she had a dark thought in the back of her mind that she wished he could have suffered worse.

They eventually encountered Leo, but before Elise could try and convince him not to fight, Corrin explained that they had already confronted eachother a while back. In fact, Leo had no plans of stopping Corrin from achieving his goal. All he requested was that Elise leave with him to avoid danger, which Elise declined. She needed to help Corrin, to fight with him and protect him.

When she caught up to Corrin just in time to see Xander ready to strike him down, she made the decision to protect him once more and did the only thing she could think of at that moment. She threw herself in the way of Xander's blade and crumpled down, Xander catching her before she hit the ground. Her strength was fading, and so she spent her last moments trying to tell Xander what he needed to do. He needed to be kind, and merciful, and understanding. Nohr didn't need aggression or hate, it needed tears like the ones Xander was shedding for her. She glanced over at Corrin, who had tears in his eyes as well. She just wished things didn't have to end this way, that she could've spent more time with him. She just wished that everything could've been the same as they were before.

Her vision began to go dark, and the sound around her was fading. She let out one last breath before everything went to nothing.

 _4_ _th_ _of Cralst, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

Sunlight beamed down through a stained-glass window imprinted with the image of two doves flying in front of a golden sunrise. This sunlight, now painted white and gold, hit Princess Elise of Nohr, who laid in her bed with the sheets strewn out around her, a consequence of a long night that ended with very little actual sleep. Who could blame her for being so restless? After all, today was a very, very special day for her.

Elise's brief sleep was ended by a loud knock on her bedroom door, and a shout from the other side. "Lady Elise!" The voice called out, inciting a groan from the girl. Her eyes fluttered open and briefly squinted to adjust to the light hitting her face. Sitting up and brushing her waist-length hair out of her face, she looked at the door.

Just as Elise was about to call out for Effie to come in, she stopped. She looked down. The image of what happened to her was fresh in her mind, and as every other memory associated with it came flooding back into her mind, she stifled out a cry of shock. "Lady Elise!" Effie shouted out again, knocking. "Lady Elise, you must wake up! Today's the day Corrin can leave the Northern Fortress, and I know you don't want to be late!"

Where was the wound from Xander's blade? There wasn't so much as a scratch on her. Why would Corrin be leaving the Northern Fortress? He was supposed to be on his way to confront father! Effie kept knocking on her door, but she wasn't paying attention anymore, for something else had stolen her attention away from her as her eyes flickered over to something familiar in the corner of her room. There sat her violin in the corner it used to always reside in, completely untouched and unharmed. As if it had never broken. As if the day Elise destroyed it had never happened.


	2. Chapter 2

_4_ _th_ _of Cralst, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

"Remember Lady Elise, Corrin doesn't know about it yet. You're supposed to act surprised when he receives the news." Effie was arranging Elise's hair into its usual style, and Elise was staring right at herself in her hand mirror. She frowned, angling it to check all sides of her face. "Is something wrong? Worrying about possible acne again?"

"What?" Elise was snapped out of her contemplation, setting the mirror down and looking up at Effie. "Oh, no! No, I was just…thinking." Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. This was all too familiar, it was all the same. If she did something different, sure, things would wind up different, but if she acted as she normally would, things wound up similar.

Elise thought to ask someone about it, but any questions she had were gone the second she saw Corrin again. She had hugged him tight the last time, she remembered that, but that was nothing compared to how tight she hugged him this time around. He actually let out a little gasp for breath; not the fake ones he would always make whenever she hugged him, a real one. Camilla seemed proud of that, in a way.

When Corrin failed the same test he had taken last time, Elise went to him to give him advice, yet again. "Keep a look out, you'll never know when an enemy might be hiding! Watch your step around the canyon, and keep an eye out for Gunter! The terrain there is super rocky, so his horse might have a hard time navigating!" She stopped, remembering the most important detail. "A-and keep an eye on Hans. I don't trust him, Corrin."

 _15_ _th_ _of Varn, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

Her advice didn't work. Corrin was gone, again, and for all she knew, she might've made things worse. She tried to get more time on her violin, considering it a sign that it was back in its original state before she broke it; a sign that she needed to keep practicing. However, her shot nerves didn't allow her to make any considerable progress. Now, she and her siblings were being tasked with leading the initial assault on Hoshido, again.

"Leo?" Elise walked around Leo's personal library in the castle, inspecting a few books. There were some titles that interested her, some being Leo's personal curation while others were donated to him by friends and family alike. _An Abridged History of Nohr, Volume 12_ , _101 Fairy Tales_ , _Make Him Fall for You in a Fortnight_ …

"Yes, Elise?" Her brother set his own book down on his lap, glancing over to her. "What can I help you with? You look troubled." Once again, his intellect was above anyone else in the family. There was a reason why he was the bookworm.

"That's because…I am troubled, Leo." Sighing, she kept pacing through the room. "Have you ever heard of déjà vu? Not the normal kind, where things are just familiar. Really, really strong déjà vu, where you feel like you've already done the exact same thing before."

"I can't say I have. Though, in my experience, déjà vu comes from rather extreme monotony. The days tend to blend together into one, and you start noticing patterns crop up. Is that perhaps what you've been experiencing?" He suggested, his eyes telling her he was more interested in what she was saying.

"You say that like recent events have been monotonous…" She puffed her cheeks, sighing and looking down to the ground. "I'm probably just really tired, and really stressed. Nothing some beauty sleep can't handle, right?" It was too soon to say if what she had really was anything more than a coincidental nightmare. Considering the events that unfolded, she hoped that they were.

 _28_ _th_ _of Varn, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

"Xander, withdraw your troops." Corrin had stood with Hoshido, his _real_ family. In his hand was that blade, the Yato, the same one he wielded last time. Just like last time, he started arguing with their siblings, accusing them of keeping the truth from him, of lying to him. Elise wasn't shocked this time, so she was able to pay more attention to what they were saying.

"Corrin, it was for your own well-being. If you had known, you would have never wanted to stay." Xander calmly explained, but Elise knew when he was trying to hide his stress. She could see it behind his eyes; the desperation that wanted anything but to be hidden. "Please, just come back with us and we'll tell you everything. No more secrets."

"No more secrets!?" Corrin's face snapped to Elise. "Then tell me how Elise just happened to know exactly what was going to happen at the Bottomless Canyon. She told me to be wary of Hans, and said that I needed to make sure Gunter didn't have any issues in the canyon. Hans killed him there; sent him falling into the canyon! Was that _planned_!?"

Elise couldn't believe it. Corrin was accusing her of somehow being responsible for it. Xander began to say something, but she wasn't listening by that point. She merely stared at her brother, trying to understand what was going on, and how she could fix it. She came up with nothing. Then, as he turned away, she felt an intense pain, one that rocked her to her core, running up from her gut to her neck.

She fell off her horse, hitting the ground hard. Camilla was the first one to reach her, shouting something to her, but for some reason every word was dulled to the point of being inaudible. All she could feel was that spiking pain, and right before she passed out, she remembered faintly that the pain was in the same spot where Xander had struck her with Siegfried.

 _17_ _th_ _of Trisk, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

That pain became something agonizingly familiar to Elise over the coming months. On occasion, for seemingly no reason whatsoever, that same agony would strike her, leaving her unable to even pull herself up from wherever she had landed. Every medical professional in Castle Krakenburg was consulted, but none could make heads nor tails of what was happening to her. Leo and Camilla tried to silence them, but she could still catch occasional murmurings that she was making it all up for attention.

Elise continued to learn songs on her violin during the next two months, getting down three this time, rather than just two. Her private instructor applauded her progress, bewildered that she was doing so marvelously at such a fast pace. He was so enthused, in fact, that he recommended she attend the concert in Cyrkensia that her father was going to, in order to learn more about the musical arts from some of the best in the world. She accepted, more hesitantly than last time, mostly because nobody seemed to remember that there even was a "last time".

By this point, Elise had decided that it would be necessary to try and do everything as close to as she had done it last time as possible. This was a decision made in part due to her wanting to make sure that this truly was a repeat of last time, and because of how Corrin had treated her just like her siblings the last time she had tried to change something. So, when Corrin and his troops arrived on the scene, Elise did the same thing she had done the time prior; standing in his way and distracting him long enough for Corrin to get away. Once again, she was kept in Castle Krakenburg, and once again, she would use the secret exit to head to Windmire's underground.

 _21_ _st_ _of Rorst, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

"She's my fiancé. We're to be married once the war is over." Elise heard those words once again and found herself still overjoyed to hear them.

Elise held her hands together in her lap and smiled. "I'm so happy for you both. Really, it's so wonderful!" Hana seemed like an even nicer girl than when she had first met her, and Corrin seemed even happier than last time. Yet, once introductions were over and Hana left to attend to other matters, a more downbeat side emerged.

"Elise, I'm…sorry. It wasn't right of me to accuse you of the things I did, back then." It took a moment for her to realize he was referring to what she said about Gunter and Hans. "It's silly to think you had anything to do with it, and I realize that now. Not to mention, even when you fell off your steed, I didn't even stop walking." She quickly forgave him, explaining what had happened to her. "Intense pains, you say? You know, if I'm ever struck by a Wyrmslayer, I get similar pains for a few days afterward. Who knows?" He began to chuckle. "Maybe you're part dragon!"

Rather embarrassed by the jape, Elise chuckled nervously back. "Well, I don't think I've taken any Wyrmslayer blades to the chest, though I'll try and keep an eye out for one." That just made him laugh even harder, and made her more embarrassed, her face flushing a bright red.

"Are you still keeping up on your violin practice? You were always so fantastic at it." Corrin asked. Admitting the truth was a bit precarious, so she decided to simply explain what she had done without telling him why she had done it.

"I threw it in the river down here."

"…huh?"

 _4_ _th_ _of Cralst, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

Sunlight beamed down through a stained-glass window imprinted with the image of two doves flying in front of a golden sunrise. This sunlight, now painted white and gold, hit Princess Elise of Nohr, who laid in her bed with the sheets strewn out around her, a consequence of a long night that ended with very little actual sleep. Who could blame her for being so restless? After all, today was a very, very special day for her.

Elise's brief sleep was ended by a loud knock on her bedroom door, and a shout from the other side. "Lady Elise!" The princess almost immediately shot up from the bed, breathing heavily, drenched in sweat. She could still feel the pain from Siegfried, but there was no wound. And yet again, her violin sat in the corner of her room, untouched.

 _2_ _nd_ _of Varn, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

"Teach me magic!" Elise demanded, staring up at Odin Dark, one of Leo's retainers. The dark mage looked over at her, in the middle of chewing a bite of mutton, making a muffled, confused noise. "You heard me. Teach me magic! Offensive magic, to be specific! I wanna learn as much of it as I can!"

This had been her fourth time around, and after her third attempt ended in death once again, she refused to just sit idle and wait for events to repeat themselves yet again. So, after a bit more convincing, she managed to get a teacher that rivaled some of the best, even if he was a bit…bombastic.

"That's right!" Odin shouted as she held the book open. "Maintain your proper stance! Let the magical energy flow through your veins, and prepare to unleash it in the form of a furious bolt of lightning! Imagine that target is your sworn enemy, and you finally have the chance to strike him down once and for all!"

That made Elise stop and think. Who exactly was her enemy, here? The Hoshidans, for taking her brother away? Corrin, for being so willing to leave? Her siblings, for driving him away? Herself, for not being strong enough to stop these events from playing out? She closed her eyes and imagined Prince Ryoma of Hoshido, then tried to cast her spell. Nothing. She tried again. Nothing. "Odin? What does this pose do again?"

"Absolutely nothing! But it makes you look cool, and it can be a great confidence booster!" He answered. Elise let out a long sight.

 _17_ _th_ _of Trisk, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

Elise decided that this time, she would warn her father of the assassination attempt this time. When he asked how she even knew, she came up with a hasty excuse, claiming she had heard nobles in Castle Krakenburg whispering amongst each other about whether it would succeed. He seemed to believe her, and so Corrin and his troops were found before they even made it into the opera house. A few of his men were killed, but he and most of his forces managed to escape. Once again, she felt that pain wrack her body and leave her unable to stand.

 _21_ _st_ _of Rorst, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

"I love Hana with all my heart. She's given me so much support in these times, and I'm honestly unsure if I'd be able to keep going on without her support. Especially after losing Rinkah and Orochi in the opera house…" Elise felt a strong pang of guilt spike through her as he spoke, strong enough that she almost mistook it for that phantom pain of Siegfried's strike returning.

"I'm…so happy for you both. Really, it's wonderful!" She put on a happy face, even though she felt too guilty for words to even express, knowing that she had just caused him more misery. That was the point when she knew that her fifth time around had failed.

 _15_ _th_ _of Darth, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

On her eighth "loop", as she had begun to call them, Elise dedicated whatever free time she could to practicing her violin. Her teacher was continually astounded with her progress, claiming that she had to be a musical prodigy, but she knew that she was just a cheater with nothing but time on her hands. The only improvement she could say she had made was not shutting Arthur and Effie out as much this time around, instead spending more time with them, when she wasn't practicing her violin.

She had even held a faux concert with her two retainers in attendance, playing some of her favorite pieces, receiving thunderous applause from them both after every one. She had to admit that it brought her at least a small amount of comfort; a rarity, by this point in time. Near the end, the pain wracked her once again, and she found herself waking up in the castle infirmary.

 _15_ _th_ _of Darth, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

It had all started with a bold decision; the decision to tell Leo everything. Every little bit of knowledge that Elise knew about the loops, she told him. He didn't believe her of course, instead thinking she had merely had a nervous break, but then the events leading up to Corrin leaving Nohr happened exactly as she predicted. Suddenly, she was explaining the exact same thing to her father, who listened to her every word. He never went to Cyrkensia, and instead sent spies to Windmire's underground in anticipation of Corrin's arrival. Something must have changed around the timing of events because he had arrived earlier than she had expected.

Before Elise knew it, there were Hoshidans in her bedchambers, weapons drawn and pointed right at her. Corrin emerged from behind them, donning a noticeable number of scars. He pointed Yato right at her, demanding to know if the rumors were true; rumors that the youngest Nohrian heir had powers of clairvoyance that were used to predict his plans. She felt she had no choice but to admit that the rumors were true. "Hana…she's dead, because of you. Because of what you said. I—" He choked back a sob, steadying his blade. "I loved her, and now she's gone…"

The next few seconds were a blur. Xander had fought his way in, Siegfried slicing through Corrin's soldiers effortlessly. The two engaged in a duel, arguing about something; she wasn't listening by that point. Eventually, Corrin was on his knees, defeated, and Xander was above him, preparing to deal the final blow.

Why did she jump in his way?

 _15_ _th_ _of Darth, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

"Oh Corrin, there's no need to flatter me so much! Especially when you deserve far more praise than I do. You're the reason we've gotten this far, after all. That kind of persistence is why you're the man I fell in love with." Hana laughed before she and Corrin looked over at Elise, who had a nasty scar on her lower left cheek from when a violin string snapped due to intensive practice, cutting her cheek open.

She kept her hands under the table, hiding how her nails dug into her palms, drawing blood. "I-I'm so happy for you both. Really, it's w-wonderful…" Why did he keep siding with Hoshido? Was Elise not good enough for him? Was nothing she did _good enough_ for him? Were the Hoshidans always just going to be _better_!?

Loop thirty-two was a failure.

 _28_ _th_ _of Varn, Nohrian Royal Calendar_

Elise had made herself a cake this time around, to celebrate fifty loops. Or at least, she was somewhere around that range. After a while, they started to blend together. Maybe she was more around seventy, or maybe even a hundred. Either way, she was sure she needed to celebrate _something_. When the time came for Corrin to announce he was siding with Hoshido, she didn't even stick around, instead riding her steed into a nearby forest as soon as nobody was around to keep an eye on her. She had spent her last one or two loops looking for the opportunity, so she wasn't surprised when nobody spotted her leaving.

Eventually, she happened upon a small creek, running peacefully through the woods. She had to admit, Hoshido had astoundingly beautiful wildlife, far more so than Nohr's. Finding a nearby tree to rest against, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, the sound of gently running water and chirping birds helping her along.

When she woke up, she spotted a pair of eyes directly above her, making her scream and sit up suddenly, banging her head against the head of the person above her. They both groaned in pain, Elise sitting back against the tree as she rubbed her head. With her senses fully restored, she looked at the girl who was now standing in front of her, rubbing her own head as well. She was young, most certainly no older than Elise, with short pink hair and beautiful Hoshidan clothing. "…Princess Sakura?"

The girl, staring back at Elise, blushed just at the mention of her name. "P-princess Elise! I-I didn't know there would be anyone else out h-here, let alone y-you…" She looked around the forest, glancing at Elise's horse, tied to a tree and lackadaisically munching on some grass. "Why are you here, instead of at the battlefield?"

"Couldn't I ask you the same? Why are you here?" Elise asked, though her tone indicated she honestly didn't care in the slightest. She had seen Sakura before, enough times to recognize her so quickly, but she never paid the girl any mind. Why would she? Sakura was everything Elise wasn't, the little sister Corrin wanted more. Just thinking about her made Elise seethe with rage, let alone looking at and talking to her.

"A-ah! My apologies, I didn't mean to be nosy…" She nervously kicked a small pebble into the stream as a stiff silence occupied the large gap in their conversation. "Do you mind if I sit?"

"Do I look like I mind?" Elise answered apathetically, not even bothering to glance back at Sakura, instead closing her eyes once again and trying to go back to sleep. She could hear Princess Sakura sit down, likely against a nearby tree, and for a while, she once again was pleasantly on her way back to sleep.

"We'll p-probably be enemies, once we leave. It's a shame…" Sakura muttered, inciting Elise to open one eye and glance at her, before closing it again. "I suppose I should say w-while we have the time that I adore y-your violin skills. I play the shamisen quite a bit, b-but it's nowhere near your level of skill."

"Thanks." Was all Elise said in response, not quite caring what the girl thought of her ability to play the violin. A second later, she realized something. "Wait…when did you hear me play the violin? We've never met." At least, they hadn't met yet in this loop. She opened both eyes, looking at Sakura, whose face was pale as death itself.

"I-I, um…that is to say, I…" Sakura began to stammer incoherently, tripping over her own words every other second. Sitting up against the tree, Elise stared at her intensely. "Y-you don't remember?"

Elise paused. Then, she went along with it. "Right! That time in Cyrkensia, when I played it in front of an opera house. I wore a disguise, so I'm surprised you recognized me!" This was something that had happened, but it was in another loop. Sakura nodded.

"Y-yes! I remember, everybody clapped once you were done, and one man even tossed a bunch of roses at you that he had intended for a performer!"

"That's it! Only, that didn't happen." Elise stood up, walking up to Sakura and grabbing her wrist, yanking the girl up to her feet. "Yet you know exactly what happened." A spark ignited in her, an enthusiasm that she hadn't felt in years. "Don't tell me…you've been repeating events?"

A gasp of utter shock escaped Sakura's lips. "H-how did you know!?" Time seemed to freeze for that moment. She wasn't alone. Nobody else understood what she had been going through, no matter how many times she repeated everything over and over again, but finally, somebody else knew! She wanted to scream in joy, but contained herself, taking a deep breath.

"It's been happening to me too."


End file.
